Dershowitz looks back on career, life

Alan Dershowitz is the Zelig of lawyers, seemingly present at all of the past half-century’s most explosive and influential court cases. His clients have included Claus von Bülow, O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson, Patty Hearst and Bill Clinton.

Now 75, he’s taught at Harvard for almost 50 years, is a regular guest on news and talk TV shows, and has authored more than 30 books. His latest is “Taking the Stand,” an autobiography that looks back on his career and makes some predictions about the future.

He will be the opening night speaker for the annual San Diego Jewish Book Fair Saturday at 7:30 p.m., a ticketed event at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center.

Q: What if anything did you learn about yourself in looking back on your career?

A: I learned that I’m not a modest person and that modesty is a way overrated virtue because it hides the truth. I’m really proud of what I’ve done and I’m going to let people know it even if the result is they call me immodest. My commitment to truth is far higher than my commitment to a false modesty.

Q: How do you think your experience in high school — poor grades, disrespected by your teachers — shaped you?

A: It shaped me in a major way because A, I wanted to show them up. I wanted to prove they were wrong. And B, they weren’t completely wrong. I was not a good high school student. I think there are a lot of young people out there who aren’t suited for high school. They become late bloomers, not because they bloom late but because their particular talents and attitudes are more accepted in colleges where you have open discussions and discourse than in high school, where people are rewarded for basically regurgitating back what they’ve been taught.

Q: I was wondering if that experience made it easier for you to take on unpopular causes later.

A: Oh, sure. Without a doubt. That turned me into a defense attorney, without any question. It made me learn how to fight back. I grew up on the streets of Brooklyn so I already knew a little bit about how to fight back but high school also taught me that authority has to be challenged. You can’t accept what people say just because they are rabbis or teachers or professors. That made me a disciplinary problem in high school and it made me a very popular and highly valued person in college and high school.

Q: If you could single out one case you’ve worked on, what are your proudest of?

A: It’s a case that most readers probably won’t be familiar with but I’m proudest of my involvement in the Anatoly (Natan) Sharansky case. That’s a case involving a Soviet dissident who was going to die in prison. I worked my head off, along with another lawyer named Irwin Cotler. We helped get him out of jail. We fought the Soviet Union and in the end we won some and lost some, but it was really, really important that we took on that authority.